second family car

blondie21

I need a second Car to get my son to school , now he's at Big school.I am looking to spend around £5000 ish . want something with a lowish insurance as i have never had car insurance before tho i am a named driver on other halfs car.
Was thinking if i got something around 2002/2003 could get something nicer than going for a newer car.
Any ideas was thinking maybe a Mercedes A class ? They look like a good sturdy reliable car.Can anyone else recommend anything ?

Exemplar

Merc very good, 5K will be stretching you to get a good one though. I work for a Smart car dealer and you would be very surprised how many people buy them for doing just this. Very safe, reliable, cheap on insurance and petrol (Wife and I went from Nottingham - Calais on £12...........) Insurance is good as they are fully loaded safety wise and the crashe test reports say thay will survive better than many much bigger cars. Anyway that's my personal preference out of the way LOL! 5K WILL get you a good car, if there's anything you are looking at please post here and i will let you know if it's a good deal or not.
Alex.

PS I will not advertise who I work for here in case anyone thinks I am spamming!

blondie21

Was hoping to buy privately as have no car to trade in. the dealers are looking around £6000 for 2002. with low miles.may just keep looking

balsingh

How about an Audi A2? It was Audi's rival to the A class. Its a funky car available with a 1.4 petrol engine. I'm sure they are coming in at the 5k/6k mark now and you will get a newer Audi than the equivalent Merc for the same money.

chrisw

My wife wanted an A-Class but most of the reviews I read on it were very poor with very expensive items failing such as suspension bits and even a service costs around £400.

blondie21

balsingh wrote:

How about an Audi A2? It was Audi's rival to the A class. Its a funky car available with a 1.4 petrol engine. I'm sure they are coming in at the 5k/6k mark now and you will get a newer Audi than the equivalent Merc for the same money.

Are the audi A2 not quite a high group insurance ? which would you go for ? audi A2 or mercedes A class.
some-one says the merc A class has a bad write up, i thought mercs got a good name ?????????

balsingh

The A class was never a great car. Usually referred to as the poor mans Merc. All the competitors were better ... Golf, 3-series compact, A2. Its main selling point was the fact that it was a Merc and as a result, it did sell well. I think the 3 series compact was always the drivers choice being RWD. I would have the A2 simply because its different .... looks different and makes the driver feel quite unique. I have to say though the shape of the A2 means the boot is probably pretty small.

funky-footprints

I had an A class a few years back and loved it, it was far cheaper than a golf to buy, and as it was our 2nd family car, it didnt matter if it was classed as a poor mans merc !!!!! (after all I too am a mum doing the school run !) it was also economical to run on fuel, the down side was servicing, the local garage wouldnt touch it, neither would few others, so we had to take it back to mercedes and they cost an arm and a leg. apparantly the new shape has been slammed by the critics. If you know a garage that will service it for you, not charging the merc prices then i'd go for it !!!! you would prob get a good price for the older shape, they are quite high up too which is nice, (By going for the older shape you may even get some nice perks like leather seats etc. ...which is always a bonus !!)